Bullet

would you be using racing wets on the track or normal tyres? Bullet

Thank you too for your contribution, it's been more important than you'd believe. So many riders are in your situations a can relate to you and your riding. keep working on it, and keep up your input. Bullet

Which pressures did you use Paris? How did the tyres perform and wear? Bullet

I'm thinking we should set you a little task of going to ask mr Ohlins some of these questions and come back and report your findings? A shock is connected to a motorbike by a pivot and linkage, a linkage which in most cases is not linear I.e. 1to1 ratio of shock movement to Swingarm movement. (I do have a linear racing linkage in my Ducati), but most bikes cannot use these because of the multiple usages of a bike. I know the external canisters you see on the MotoGP forks/WSB forks contains the oil and air gap levels, you remove the top and you easily adjust them. I don't have detailed knowledge though, but have seen competitors messing/experimenting with them in racing. Is very high end stuff though. I just use cartridge kits, which are exceptional and reasonably good value for money. I do agree entirely that's linear spring doesn't change it's resistance during any of it's stroke, but the compressed air or nitrogen in a rear shock, must affect the end of the stroke. The chart you provided (which I have seen before too), shows exactly this. I'm afraid I don't have a mechanical engineering background, and thus don't have the in depth technical explanations on the specific details. Perhaps someone in our midst does? I do think the Ohlins route is good one though? Fancy the challenge of finding out? An interesting thread indeed this is,., Bullet

Steering dampers don't have springs in them... B

hi, Try 30Front, 28 Rear. (cold pressures), for track. For road, I'd use something like 35front, 38-39Rear for spirited, single person riding, up the rear to 42 if two's up or carrying luggage. Bullet

hi, You can find the information you require here. http://www.dunlopracing.com/Pressures.pdf You will always see tyre pressure rise, maybe 2-3in the front and 4-6 psi in the rear if you measure between cold and Hot of the track pressures. Hope it helps, Bullet

yeah, you do have to love it. Keeps us interested though doesn't it? I think it's for the best of everyone and the sport though that he gets back onto a more competitive bike. Whilst I'm a great lover of the red missiles, I think their bike isn't competitive enough right now to give him a) the chance, keep his motivation sharp and high enough to push himself hard enough. I also think it'll be a fascinating battle watching him with Jorge, whom I think will now get the better of Rossi (unfortunately). I'm not a lover of Stoner and his antics, but I am desperately sorry he's leaving, as he's the class of the field isn't he with respect to riding. I'm hoping it'll make the racing more interesting in MotoGP as it's been a little lack lustre again this season, Moto2 is far more exciting to watch. Bullet

Secretly, we used to have little competitions in the crew, see who could leave the longest darkie. I once made it all the way from turn 1 at Rockingham all the way to turn 2 (before you braked), it was a good 250meters, and a gear change. Bullet

I had to view it a couple of times before it dawned on me But saving such a slide is not easy - you don't have much time to react in before it's too late. My own crash last year was 1/10th of 'OK rear is moving sideways to the left' and then getting spit off in an instant. It is possible though, as the initial slide was actually not that harsh, if he'd have been really delicate with his throttle control (which of course he wasn't as it caused his problem in the first instance), he might have been able to just let the bike drfit and balance and then stabilise. Very difficult in the moment I grant you, but it would have been his only hope. A very, very good point Jason rasied, training well worth it, over the bling. The bike didn't look that well at the end did it? (Oooops) Bullet

Start picking the bike into the slide and check the throttle? (i.e don't continue to roll on, but don't roll off either) That or turn on the TC (jk) winner number 2. if the TC was good, which clearly he didn't either have on or too low a setting for his level of skill, (or it's poor normally you'd expect them to stop that well before that point of slide), you can't keep rolling on harder as the roll on was the intial problem all you could have done was check the throttle(i.e keep the throttle on but not roll anymore), and definitely, he wouldn't have wanted to close it, as that's how you get a highside. Bullet

The other thing TC does do well, is it protects tyres well too. Stopping a litre bike sliding too much (you want some slide if you can get it, ala nice darkies), but you don't want the bike destorying the tyre too quickly. Especially with tyres as expensive as they are. Bullet

So, I've said the guy might have been able to save it with the warning through the bars; how would he have done this? Bullet

It's the rear of the bike stepping out of line, (sliding or spinning up) and the bike naturally compensates and steers into the slide. Is a bit scarry when you first start to feel it, can invoke lots of SR's. The key though is being well locked on, and being relaxed as you can feel the bars in your hands just gently wave and shimmy. It's the bike giving you feedback. Bullet

the point is, his throttle application is not correct. He's not followed the rule, and it's certainly not what I'd call a good roll on, the incorrect roll on is what requires more lean angle. Certainly no throttle finesse to be seen there, and that's what's caused his crash. If you look closely, the bike actually gave him a warning before it lowsided him, the bars turned into the turn to the right. If he'd have been well connected on the bike, and relaxed and at that kind of level, he could of saved that. (probably). Bullet

we have our winner. Bullet

i think you can see from the Ducati with rossi on, it's in it's Mid third, and he's still on the brake, turning and loading the front. This isn't be accident, clearly. I do know when Keith wrote the text originally, the kit was pretty poor, and today, the suspension is massively, massively better, which does allow more tolerance to bid technique. I do believe that it still applies though in every sence. I think it's also impossible for the vendors to make a linear stroke fork, it is of course a sealed unit, and when you compress sealed things, it's not possible to keep the pressure inside constant, hence the stroke pressure differences. road bikes, do on the whole have progressive springs, race bikes do not, they're linear. also, you must remember Kai, that the springs are normally around 10nm, so the air spring at 100 nm (as an example) is a much bigger force than the spring at the end of the stroke. Bullet

Have a look at his throttle application, what can you see? Even going back to the first corner of the video, what's immediately obvious, what rule's he braking? Bullet

Bullet, you do know about what they say of the Italian Ladies - they're pretty, but slightly crazy and erratic HMGs (High Maintenance Girlfriends) Kai, wondering what Bullet's missus will say She'd say I'm the high maintenance one in our life. (certainly with regards to bank balances anyway). Bullet

I haven't been on a bike with traction control but not sure if I want it......seems like it takes the skill building out of the rider and relying more on the technology to make up for your mistakes which I don't think is right. Traction control isn't a saviour of ham fistedness. You're much better to learn to ride with feel and skill than rely on traction control. electronics are reknowned for failing, and if you only rely on it, you could be saving up a big accident. even the top level riders still get highsided with it from time to time. I have traction control on my Ducati racer, (only factory fitted), and I don't use it, and have it turned off. It interferes too much in the feeling of what the bikes doing. I do think TC is a very good thing for road riding, certainly in poor conditions, but if you really want to learn to ride, I don't think you need TC unless your riding a 240-250BHP monster. Bullet

ha ha, nice one. Yeah, its not as exotic as the lady, but doesn't come with the bills either no doubt. get them rearsets bought, you know you want to. Let's have some video up of you riding her my friend. Bullet

Don't be too hard on yourself Elirik. It's very competitive at the very top, and you've also got to appreciate those WSBK bikes are rapier fast (as are the supersport bikes), very light, 220-240BHP, flyweight riders, the best of every component money can buy and so on. Silverstone is a very, very fast circuit, and (from memory), there's something like 18- turns there. Lets say the WSBK riders are .5 of second into and out of each turn quicker, there's 9 seconds just like that. Racing slicks are ok in some water (oddly), as long as you can keep them warm, and racing wets are, well, way better than the tyres you ride on the road or on a track nice and hot beautiful day. It's possible as a good rider to get within 10% of those kind of riders times, getting the rest of is very, very hard. To give you an idea, I can do Silverstone arena circa 2:20 if I'm absolutely flat out on my Race bike, (which has around 190BHP), the WSBK riders were doing what, 2:05 -2:-06 in qualifying. lets say race pace circa 2:07- 2:08 for the leaders. Don't judge yourself by the very best in the world, these guys are professional racers, years or riding on the edge, you'll always feel inadequate and incompetent by their standards, but just keep chipping away at yourself and you keep edging forwards piece by piece and you can still achieve impressive results in your riding and progress. Bullet

Hi mate, I don't want to jump into this as Hotfoot has already started a direction with you. She's pretty nusy at the mo, and I know she is struggling for time, so you might need to just bare with her a little mate. Bullet

sweet, how is she? Get ready for the spending to begin.... When I bought my Ducati, I vowed I wouldn't spend much... Ha, never stopped since. Bullet

well done, and you started off such a doubter. Bullet